Tools of The Trade’s (ToTT) is celebrating their 3rd anniversary this year and to commemorate this occasion, a cookbook “Best Brunch Ever – Delicious Morning Recipes to Savour” as well as an inaugural online shopping portal were launched! I was just reading about the launch of the cookbook on HerWorldPlus and coincidentally on the next day, I was invited to their launch event! Well, I myself am a huge fan of ToTT, having earned myself their membership card earlier this year. Let me just give you a brief introduction of ToTT. Apart from hosting their well-known cooking and baking classes, it is a one-stop location for all you may ever need in your kitchen – cutleries, utensils, baking equipments, party-wares, sous-vide machines – you name it they have it. The brand is well-loved by chefs in the Les Amis Group, Pollen and more! Also, the prices here are extremely reasonable too.
Moving on to talk about ToTT’s Brunch cookbook, it contains 24 easy-to-prepare recipes by 8 well-known chef in Singapore including Chef Hashida, master chef of Hashida Sushi at Mandarin Gallery, our local Chef Eric Low and many more! If you’ve noticed, all of 8 chefs specialise in different types of cuisines, translating to 4 creations of each of the 8 cuisines, including American, Australian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Spanish, Italian and French. Yes, brunch is not all about poached eggs, smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce. What I personally love about this book is also the food styling efforts put into each visual. No doubt, these great chefs were innovative in their platings and presentations of their creations. Moreover, this cookbook is affordably priced at $12.90!
First up, we have Chef Antonio Facchinetti, Chef de Cuisine of Prego Restaurant at Fairmont Singapore. He cooked up a simple pasta dish that took less than 5 minutes! However, due to the use of unusual ingredients such as breadcrumbs and anchovies, the pasta was taken to a whole new level in terms of texture and taste. An epitome of splendor in simplicity.
A close-up shot of the Chef Antonio’s Spaghetti Piccanti.
Next, we have Chef Nicolas Joanny, Chef-owner of Nicolas Le Restaurant. The very suave chef taught us how we could spice things up again with eggs! Sherry vinegar was added the a cream mix that topped the runny eggs – a great delight to your tongue. Accompanying the egg is a filo-wrapped prawn with tarragon leaves. The case was crispy and thin, while the fresh prawns tasted amazing when paired with tarragon leaves.
A shot of Chef Nicolas’ Eggs ‘A La Coque’!
See how lovely the egg was!
Over here, we have a humorous American – Chef Dan Segall, group executive chef of The Big Idea (people behind The Pelican, Fat Cow etc.). Unsurprisingly, his recipe includes a huge amount of bacon – for his bacon jam. With ToTT’s HotmixPRO machine, you can easily prepare bacon jam under 20 minutes, which usually takes hours in his kitchen according to Chef Dan!Chef Dan’s Cornbread Wedges with Bacon Jam! The jam was packed with robust flavours despite such a short cooking time. Once again, simple and accessible ingredients are used, which revealed how powerful the equipment used is!
Finally, we have Chef Chi Quang Trinh, Sous Chef of Addictions Café & Remedy Bar, bringing to us his Vietnamese take on brunch. Instead of pancakes, the flour batter used by Chef Chi had created white rice roll skins! If you’re looking for healthy and yummy brunch dishes, this will be your answer!
A group shot of all 4 chefs who demonstrated to us their wonderful dishes! It was really an honour to meet all these great chefs in person!
If you haven’t been to ToTT, this is a shot of part of the store! It is a huge store with organised sections and well-trained staff!
Thinking of holding a Christmas party? Head down to ToTT for the prettiest party favours and essentials! They’re having a Christmas Sale right now, so it’ll be a good time to revamp your kitchen!
A spanking-new Jasons marketplace had opened within ToTT as well, right next to the Bistro.

If I haven’t given you enough reasons to head down to ToTT, you may want to head to www.tottstore.com, an E-shop they have recently launched as well. The e-commerce site is a catalogue to more than 1,500 products and includes features such as FaceBook Connect to ease registration processes, product comparison for you to make informed decisions and even wishlists to hint to your loved ones what you’d like this Christmas! I’m really happy to see how ToTT has come such a long way – gone were the days where I had to call them up to enquire about a product! Everything I need to know is within a click of the mouse (or trackpad in my case)!

*psst: From now on till 6 December, enjoy free shipping on orders over $50 and 10% off all orders when you shop at www.ToTTStore.com!